Location, Location, Location: Where We Teach Primary Care Makes All the Difference.

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Primary Care Medicine
• Healthcare Systems Research

Background:

• The primary care workforce is crucial for healthcare stakeholders, requiring effective education, rewarding work environments, work-life balance, and patient-centered outcomes.
• Significant barriers, including low pay, debt, lack of respect, and administrative burden, deter clinicians from primary care careers.
• Current academic medical centers often struggle to provide ideal training environments for primary care and interdisciplinary teams.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a new model for training a high-quality primary care workforce.
• To address barriers limiting interest in primary care careers.
• To identify institutional and practice environment changes to enhance primary care training.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of current challenges in primary care workforce development.
• Review of essential components for effective primary care education.
• Proposal for relocating primary care training to integrated health systems.

Main Results:

• High-performing health systems offer superior training environments for primary care.
• Integrated care models facilitate leadership and care delivery roles for primary care clinicians.
• Relocating training can energize the primary care trainee pool.

Conclusions:

• A shift in primary care training to high-performing, integrated health systems is recommended.
• Primary care clinicians should assume leadership roles in these systems.
• This model can help overcome barriers and strengthen the primary care workforce.